The word at Cedar Falls: The party's over

RAMONA  Law enforcement officials posted at trailheads to Cedar Creek Falls east of Ramona on Saturday turned away at least 75 parties of hikers who didn’t know the recreation area was closed, authorities said.

“All but two were fine with the closure,” said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Brian Harris. “Two groups mouthed off a little.”

Harris said signs went up early Saturday at the trailhead off Thornbush Street, in San Diego Country Estates, declaring the falls, and a quarter-mile on each side of the river gorge leading to the falls, off limits for the next four months, until Nov. 8.

Trails into the area from the south and from Eagle Peak Road also are closed.

Harris said five sheriff’s deputies, three Forest Service law enforcement officers and two recreation technicians spent the day roaming the trail and staffing the Thornbush Street parking lot to turn away visitors. A sheriff’s helicopter circled the area every few hours.

The law enforcement officers stopped five people from hiking into the falls from the south, up the San Diego River gorge, Harris said.

No one was cited for trespassing. A ticket comes with a fine of up to $5,000 for an individual or $10,000 for a group, and up to six months in jail, Harris said.

"All in all, it was a good public-relations day," he said.

He said some visitors who drove in from San Vicente Road saw a flashing electronic sign saying Cedar Falls was closed, but they came anyway because they weren't sure what it meant.

The Forest Service action was taken in response to months of complaints by Country Estates residents about the noise, trash and jammed roads caused by droves of partyers headed down the steep trail to a swimming hole fed by the falls.

Many ill-prepared hikers suffer dehydration in hot weather or are injured on the trail or from cliff-diving and have to be rescued by helicopter. On Wednesday, 16-year-old Joseph Meram of El Cajon died when he slipped off an 80-foot cliff, hitting some boulders before landing in the water.

Harris said closing Cedar Creek Falls, which lies in the Cleveland National Forest, resulted in an increase in visitors to nearby Three Sisters falls and to Tenaja Falls, also in forest land west of Murrieta in Riverside County.